Enjoying my day off, I was catching up with the news and interesting podcasts when I came across Mrs Susan Woods and her Susan Woods Nonprofit Solutions - Youtube channel. As I am not able to verify who Mrs Woods is, I suggest to proceed with caution. That said, I found her "BLM investigations" playlist worth watching for several reasons.

(1) Reason #1: Advocating transparency

For over 15 years, I've been living by a rule that direct help is better than help via any organization, especially organization/charity I know nothing about. What do I mean by "direct"? Well, if I and/or my family member know someone in need of help, it is better to extend that help directly - alone or with group of people - than just make a payment to some charity. It is actually the only way that you can be certain that intended help will end up with the one who needs it.

Of course, direct help is not always possible. Then you should ask a question: "How much of my money/resources will actually be used to help?" This is why it is better to donate through you local organizations, where you can better verify how many people are volonteering, how many people are on the payroll etc. For example, together with my family I am supporting local charity who actually has few people on the payroll. When asked how much of donations is going towards their salaries, I've received fair and reasonable answer. These two employees are really necessary due to logistics and accounting which require someone trained in accounting and management. They are receiving living wages in accordance to the job market. Nothing more and nothing less. That also means, I should expect that part of my donation will go towards their living wages. Not majority of my donation, but some (actually smaller percentage). Guess what? As most people in the community, I found it reasonable.

Yet, that also means that there are people in my local charity who were transparent with me and whom I trust now to make a reasonable decisions. This is what Mrs. Woods does great; she points out the red flags when it comes to BLM organization and the lack of transperancy.

(2) Reason #2: Accountability

My attitude towards charity work changed after I was given following thought experiment: "Every year, countries in Africa receive approximately 133 bilion dollars in offical aid, which is 2.46 billion dollars per country. Every year. For decades. Let us overestimate that to build a factory - for example, to assemble smart phones - costs 50 million dollars. That would mean that each year African countries are given enough money, not only to build a factory which could help the people help themselves, but also to invest into required infrastructure that would allow transport and export of goods. Yet, these countries hardly made any progress - why?"

This is because once most of people part with their money to charities, they do not verify how that money is being spent nor ask for accountability. Mrs. Woods does a great job from this aspect: she points out that before BLM even manages to spend any of donations, the certain cut is taken by intermediaries, and that is actually the only point that we are sure of how the money has been spent. "Where is the money" - she asks, as everyone else should regardless of their opinion about BLM. Only people who are hold accountable are people who will make a difference.

Overall, I think everyone who considers to donate their money to any organization should watch these videos. It is a good starting point to learn what are some of the red flags and to remind ourselves that generosity of many is often exploited by few. It is historical truth, constant as the existence of human nature.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVXPM0eEZlUwd4YW8UvqpKA/playlists